The Himino Chronicles
by SynestraVixen
Summary: 4 Years have passed, and Kagome has changed for the better. These changes don't go unnoticed, and soon the icy Lord of the West begans to see her in a new light. At the same time, Naraku begins to set his eyes on something other than the jewel; a powerful being who seemingly dropped from the very heavens.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or it's characters. I do, however, have the power to bend their actions to my whims in this story.**

Chapter 1

It was nighttime when Kagome climbed out of the battered well with a grunt and slung her yellow backpack onto the ground, glad to be back in the Warring States Era with her second family. Shippo came bounding up the hill towards her with a happy gleam in his eyes, and promptly jumped into her open arms.

"Kagome! You're finally back!" he yelled happily while snuggling deeper into her bosom.

The young miko's sapphire eyes sparkled with joy as she laughed and spun the young fox demon in a circle. The young boy she considered her own had grown a few inches in the last few years, but he was still small enough to fit comfortably on her shoulder, his ever-growing legs swinging from his perch whenever they traveled. "It's good to be back, Shippo. You've been good for Kaede, right? And where are Sango and Miroku?" she asked with a smile.

"They're at the village, and I've been behaving, don't worry!" the emerald eyed boy said.

"Well, I've brought you some candy, but I'll give it to you when I get back to the village, okay?"

Shippo's eyebrows furrowed together slightly. "Where are you going?" he pouted.

Kagome gave him a small smile and said, "I'm going to go get Inuyasha, I won't be long. Tell Miroku and Sango I'll see them soon," she said, ruffling his hair in a motherly way.

Shippo had never been naive, even when he had first met his adoptive mother, but he could tell by the look in her eye that she knew what she would be getting into when she went to see the foolish hanyou, so he sighed and didn't bother trying to talk her out of it. But he also knew that in the last 4 years the now 19 year old woman wasn't in love with Inuyasha any longer. The thought made him happy, since it meant no more consoling her at night when she stumbled upon Inuyasha and his meetings with Kikyo. "Alright, I'll tell them, but be safe okay mom?" Shippo whispered, worry evident in his green eyes.

The young raven-haired woman nodded and grinned before saying, "You know I will, Shippo. And if something happens, I'll send a signal, okay?"

Releasing Shippo, she watched him bounce back to the village. '_I guess I'll just leave my bag here. I can get Inuyasha to carry it back_,' she thought with a twinge of guilt. She always felt bad for making him carry it, but then again, she's seen him throw a tree before, so her bag must weigh nothing to the teenage hanyou.

Turning on her heel she strolled into Inuyasha's Forest with a confident stride, her eyes glazing over as she considered the last 4 years of her short life. She was no longer the clumsy teen who could barely hit a demon with an arrow. Her aim was near unmatched after all the life-or-death situations where she either had to hit the mark or lose a limb. Her miko powers had flourished beautifully, but training them completely had been a pain in the rear. It was now child's play to shoot beams, create a bow and arrows with only her own energy, and even through up multi-layered barriers that were near impossible to break. Kagome could sense an aura from at least 15 miles away, which, incidentally, widened her range for sensing the jewel shards.

And of course that fact made Inuyasha infinitely glad.

Lately she had been working on turning her reiki into a more useful weapon for close combat, such as a sword. While the task was easy enough, after she had the reiki-sword in her hand, she didn't know what to do with it. Kagome was lucky enough that Sango offered to train her in the art of sword play, and the demon slayer even went so far as to entertain the thought of the miko forming a giant boomerang out of her own power. '_Which honestly wasn't such a bad idea at all_,' she thought to herself in excitement of putting the theory to the test.

On her trek through the forest a branch snagged on her blue-black hair, and she frowned as she loosened it. Kagome had seriously considered cutting half of it off, since her hair now reached the back of her knees and had to be bound up half the time. Grumbling about annoying trees, she reached into her pocket and brought out her compact mirror, fixing the stray lock of hair back into place. She examined her face, which hadn't changed much in the last 4 years. Her lips had grown a tad larger and pinker, her eyes even more blue, and her skin tanner with all the traveling. Her body on the other hand, had changed quite a bit. She had gone from a B cup to a large C, from a waistline of 26 inches to one of 23, and she was now 5'4, exactly Sango's height. Kagome had to admit, she felt proud of her body, which didn't have an ounce of fat on her from all the fighting.

Physical changes aside, she even changed her wardrobe. The young girl no longer wore the green and white clothing, but now wore a sapphire blue button up blouse without sleeves and a black pleated skirt that stopped mid-thigh and had slits up both sides. Not wanting to give anyone a free show like she did when she was younger, she wore tight black spandex shorts underneath it at all times.

Even better were the emotional changes. The usually temperamental woman could calm herself down instead of exploding like she used to do, and her teenage hormones were basically gone, so she knew what she wanted and how to go about getting it.

'_That's part of the problem though...after all this time with in the past and all the excitement, no normal guy will ever do. No, a human would never do,_' she thought sadly. Kagome didn't know a lot of demons who would want a miko for a mate, and Kouga was out of the picture since she had finally gotten him to make good of his promise and mate the hyper Ayame. She did have her sites set on one particular demon, but their meetings were few and far between, and she doubted he even found her attractive in the first place.

Besides, their wasn't much time to think about her secret crush with Naraku still on the loose. He hadn't done anything too bad lately, she realized. They hadn't discovered any slaughtered villages or wide-scale homicide for at least a year now. Now that Kagome thought of it, all they had done was track him down, fight him, and then he would escape. Over the last 4 years he had almost completed the jewel 3 times, and then he would make some miniscule slip up and lose about half of it. It was almost becoming routine for the shard hunters, but it was also becoming tiring. Not to mention during their fights with any his incarnations they never used their full power anymore, as if Naraku's incarnations were becoming bored. Even the evil hanyou had an annoyingly bored expression on his face when they fought, and Kagome could swear she heard him sigh a few times when Inuyasha charged in to fight him.

Lately, the evil demon had been even more inactive, and would simply find a random animal and pump it full of jewels shards, knowing full well the group could defeat it easily. The last thing that was sent to destroy them was a giant demon dog with 10 shards and instructions to kill them.

Kagome purified it with one arrow with little trouble.

'_Maybe Naraku is realizing that he needs a new hobby...he's not even trying to kill us anymore. Either he's planning a really big scheme or he's just too lazy to do much. Maybe he just needs to find a nice girlfriend and settle down or something...'_, the young miko thought vaguely. She laughed out loud at the thought; a tinkling sort of laughter that was more of a giggle.

Suddenly, as she reached a small clearing, something massive flared at the edge of her senses. It was a tremendous white aura, and she looked into the sky to see something plummeting from the heavens. Kagome's mouth dropped open as she watched as a steak of white-green light shot towards the horizon as a break-neck speed. The clouds disappeared and the entire sky turned from midnight blue to white for a few seconds as the object crashed into the earth hundreds of miles away from where the awestruck woman was standing. The sky returned to normal not a second later.

Kagome didn't know what to make of what had just happened, but her powers were flaring in synch to her worried thoughts. The thing, whatever it was, was at least 300 miles away, and yet the raven-haired beauty could feel it as strongly as if it was right in front of her. Suddenly it vanished completely, and she was able to relax and release the breathe she didn't know she was holding in.

"Gosh, whatever that was, I hope we don't run into it any time soon..." she murmured with wide eyes as a shiver went down her spine.

She shook herself for a second, smoothing down her outfit before continuing to find Inuyasha. His aura, which was usually a volatile scarlet color, was a calming red that matched his robe. Creating a barrier that covered her skin and clothes and silenced her movements, Kagome crept closer towards the small clearing where Inuyasha and Kikyo stood in a warm looking embrace.

"Inuyasha...I grow weary of walking this earth in this body. How much longer must I wait for you and your friends to complete the Shikon and wish me back to life?" Kikyo whispered softly.

Inuyasha was silent for a moment before replying, "It'll be whole soon, don't worry. I wish there was another way though..." he trailed off sadly.

Kikyo stepped back to look into his golden eyes with a small smile, "But there is another way, Inuyasha. A much simpler way. You could simply get rid of my reincarnation and my full soul would return to me, you must know that by now."

A pained look crossed his face so fast that Kikyo wasn't even sure she saw it, but Inuyasha simply smiled back and embraced her again. The undead miko waited no longer than 10 seconds for his answer on the matter.

"I'll think about it and give you my answer in a week," the golden-eyed hanyou said determinedly.

If he had been looking at her face he would've seen the small smirk that graced her features at his words. '_Always so eager to please your master, Inuyasha,' _the red and white clad miko thought smugly.

She pulled out of his arms and called her soul collectors to gather her. Kikyo wanted to laugh at the longing in the silver-haired males eyes as she was slowly carried away.

"I await your answer, Inuyasha..." she murmured loud enough for him to hear as she faded into the night sky.

Inuyasha sighed and turned around to walk in Kagome's direction when she dropped the barrier around herself. He wasn't startled to see her leaning against a tree with arms and legs crossed in such a casual position as she smiled at him with affection.

"I cant believe she bought that load of crap you just gave her, Yasha." she said, trying not to giggle.

He blushed a bit before growling, "Feh, if she thinks I'm her puppy and that I'm gonna do whatever she wants shes got another thing coming. As if I'd actually consider taking your life to bring hers back. The first thing the wench is gonna do is stick another arrow in my damn chest," he stated angrily.

Kagome looked sympathetic at her best friend, her heart breaking at his sorrowful expression. "Yasha, you have to realize you were both attracted to each other out of sheer loneliness," she said softly as she walked over and placed a soothing hand on his shoulder, "it wasn't really love. If it was, Naraku would've never been able to come between you two. When you find a girl who loves you, you'll know, because she'll love you just the way you are and not want to change you like Kikyo tried to," the kind-hearted miko finished with a cheerful note.

Inuyasha placed his hand over hers and gave a rare, genuine smile. "You're right. But I hope the woman I find wont sit me every time I say something rude." He murmured the last part, hoping Kagome wouldn't hear.

He was rewarded with a swift punch to the arm for his snide comment. The blue-eyed woman jumped back as he moved to retaliate from the blow.

"Keep that up and I'll personally teach your future mate the subjugation spell!" she laughed as she ran on light feet towards the village.

"Hey, that's not funny! Hey! Kagome, get back here!" the dog hanyou yelled as he jumped into the air to give chase. He winced a bit at the bruise that was starting to form from her punch and smirked. '_Just because the wench is strong enough to not need my protection doesn't mean she's strong enough to beat me in hand to hand."_

In the middle of the village by the well, with his friends and loved ones watching and laughing all the while and the full moon at its zenith in the sky, the young hanyou was proven painfully wrong.

Not that Kagome walked away without any scratches, either.

**Okay, 3 pages, bros. I'll try to update once every week, and I've already got the next chapter up and ready for your viewing pleasure. I hope you like the story, but give me ideas and whatnot so I can give you the type of story you need.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Hundreds of miles away, a young woman rose from a smoking crater.

Green flames flickered around the edges of the colossal wound in the earth, casting an eerily beautiful light on the tattered remains of trees and other foliage. The girl struggled to her feet on shaky legs, surprised at how her clothing had remained pristine and unsoiled despite the impact.

Her top was reminiscent of a kimono, pure white that faded to a snowy gray at the waist, complete with a large green obi that was secured with a silver knotted cord. It was embellished with a sakura blossom pattern along the sleeves, which fanned out and ended in a point just bellow her wrist. Her bottom on the other hand, was clad with a mid thigh length white skirt with a small slit up one side and a green belt. Her outfit was completed with plain white stockings that ended just below her skirt and ankle high heeled boots that were laced with thin green rope. With large breasts and wide hips, it was appropriate to say it was a bit snug on her.

She brushed her long chin-length bangs out of her face, cat-like emerald eyes squinting at her surroundings. Her hair brushed the tops of her calves as she bent over and coughed to clear her throat; it was a strange color that could only be described as spun moonlight. Her dainty face was adorned with a small button nose, perfectly shaped baby pink lips, and smooth arched eyebrows that were razor thin.

The stranger shook her head in confusion as she tried to think of something, anything, that would explain her current predicament. She felt like a blank slate, and the only thing she could remember was her name.

Himino.

What the heck was she supposed to do now?

"I'm taking this a whole lot better than I should be..." she said to herself out loud. She marveled at the sound of her own voice; it was tinkling and child-like, but not so high that she sounded annoying.

Tucking a stray lock of hair behind her elvish ears, she gracefully jumped from the crater and landed on the branch of a tall tree. Staring out across the dark landscape, she let a smile stretch across her rosy cheeks. 'If I can't remember what I'm doing here, I'll just have to FIND a reason to be here," Himino thought happily.

And with that upbeat idea, she tilted her face towards the sky, and inhaled deeply. Letting the scents of the forest overwhelm her senses. She could smell a buck not to far away, and hear the song of a nightingale. It was truly a tranquil moment for the young girl.

All at once the night exploded in a flurry of debris and destruction.

A large ogre demon completely destroyed the tree Himino was residing in, but a well timed back flip kept her from harms way. Landing in another tree a safe distance away, she considered the giant demon with a small hint of fear. Its skin was blood red and rough looking, with five large horns sticking out of its head. The smell of death and rotten flesh surrounded it, and Himino could swear she saw scraps of flesh wedged between it's large yellow fangs. A disgusting leer was on it's face as it's red eyes traveled the height of her body.

"Hey ugly, my eyes are up here!" she shouted at it, a deep scowl on her face. A thought occurred to her when it laughed at her outburst.

She couldn't even remember who she was, how was she supposed to fight a monster 10 times her height?

"I'll devour you whole, woman," it growled at her with a gravelly voice while stepping closer, its large clawed feet shaking the ground.

Weighing her options, the green eyed woman decided she would rather go down fighting than run away. There was no way the demon could be faster than her, and although she didn't quite know her own strength just yet, she was sure such a dumb brute would be brought down easily.

Raising one hand in front of her face, green flames danced between her sharp white claws. She grinned at how her power instinctively reacted on command.

"Bring it one, you piece of filth."

The ogre charged in outrage, sending a massive fist in her direction. Dropping from the tree in a flurry of silver-white hair and flashing eyes, Himino rushed past the demons legs and delivered a well placed slash to its calf. She swung around from her dash and jumped onto the ogre's shoulder, digging her hand straight through to its collar bone.

Its roar of pain was music to her ears, and a sick type of excitement washed over her.

The ogre managed to swat her off of its shoulder with the back of its hand, but the young demoness would not be deterred so easily. She landed lightly on her feet, barely staying on the ground for a second before jumping up again and shoving a fist directly into the demons jugular. Its eyes widened and a gurgling noise escaped its frothing mouth as Himino jerked her hand back, a glowing shard held within it. Landing on the ground, she stepped back and watched the ogre topple to the earth, its neck bleeding heavily.

"You...what are...you...?" it rasped with its final breaths.

She considered the filthy ogre for a moment, watching in amazement as green fire sprung form its wounds and began to eat the dying demon from the inside out. Her green eyes sparkling with pride at her handiwork, she answered cheekily, "You can just call me...the Demon of the All."

The words came from her mouth before she could register the meaning behind them, but she choose not to dwell on it. 'Besides, I rather like the name. It seems...to fit me, in a way,' she thought vaguely.

It's eyes widened even further at her words, and with a last shuddering growl, the light died from the ogres eyes. The green fire continued to eat away at the body, until the only proof that it had ever existed was a small patch of silver ashes.

Inquisitive emerald eyes turned towards the glowing shard in her blood soaked hand; it was tainted with a deep purple light. Letting a small bit of her aura seep into the sliver, Himino watched in amazement as the shard lightened to an innocent pink, and then further lightened to a nearly blinding white. 'Well, that was unexpected,' she thought.

She could feel the aura of the small shard, even after tucking it away into the folds of her top. But what baffled her even more was that she could feel many others of these tiny jewel shards, each scattered across the land, some pieces larger than others. A large smile spread across her face as an idea came to her.

"I'm gonna make it my business to gather these little things. Maybe that's why I'm here!" she said enthusiastically. Her child-like mind was ignorant as to the extreme severity of her situation, but soon it would come back to crash down on her head.

Not wasting any time with thinking about trivial things such as what she was and who she was, Himino sped off towards the nearest shard, finally happy to have something to do.

The self-proclaimed Demon of the All was on a hunt.

Kagome shivered as she sensed the aura from the other night.

It wasn't as massive as before, but it's purity was still just as strong. Ignoring it for now, she turned back towards her friends who were regarding her with worry on their faces.

"Are you alright, Kagome?" Sango asked with a questioning look on her face.

"Yes, you do look quite troubled Lady Kagome. Is there a demon or a jewel shard near?'" Miroku asked in his usually calm and soothing voice.

Kagome shook her head at her traveling companions and smiled at their concern, "No, nothing like that. I've just been sensing something really strange, but since its really far away, there's no need to worry about it, guys," she explained with a smile to calm their worrying.

Her words placated them for the moment, and they settled back into a comfortable silence. The fire in the center of Kaede's hut cast warm orange hues over the faces of the 6 shard hunters.

Sango leaned on Miroku's shoulder and closed her eyes, sighing in comfort. Miroku in turn draped his arm around the demon slayer, reveling in the feeling of being able to hold his loved one's form close to him without fear of being a danger to her. His wind tunnel had stabilized no more than a year ago; the wind from it was still as destructive as ever, but the gaping black hole in his hand no longer grew.

This came as a wonderful surprise to Sango, of course.

Inuyasha was leaning in his customary position against one of the walls of the hut. His Tetsaiga rested between his crossed legs, and his silver puppy ears twitched slightly at the sounds of the night. Kagome was leaning her back against his side, her legs also crossed, but a blanket was draped across her lap as a makeshift bed for Shippo. Said fox demon was curled into a fluffy orange ball, snoring slightly while using Kirara as a pillow.

The only 2 left awake in the hut were Inuyasha and Kagome, since the 2 needed very little sleep anymore; Inuyasha relying on his ever growing demonic powers and Kagome using her near-infinite well of reiki.

The silver haired dog hanyou looked towards the flap that served as the door for the hut, watching in disgust as a sickly pale soul collector glided in with a bluish white trail behind it. It circled the hut, then landed on Inuyasha's arm with an eery cry, it's message clear; Kikyo was summoning him. That she would do such in a disturbingly blatant way, in front of Kagome no less, was proof that she viewed the dog eared teen as nothing more than a lapdog.

Inuyasha snarled in fury at the disrespect the walking corpse gave him. Flicking his claws in a shooing manner towards the soul collector, the cursed demon met it's end at his claws.

"How much longer do I have to do this, Kagome?! Having to smell dirt and ashes every other night is bad enough, but being summoned like that by that wench is crossing a line," he grumbled, his brows furrowing even deeper than usual.

Kagome felt a blade of guilt pierce her heart. Although originally the plan was for Inuyasha to pry information about Naraku from the undead clay doll, but after months of 'nightly trysts', the plan was not only stressing out the poor hanyou, it was proving fruitless altogether. Kikyo always managed to skirt the topic with practiced ease, but after many sharp observations made by Inuyasha, it was concluded that the once esteemed priestess knew little to nothing about Naraku's current location.

The blue eyed miko decided that perhaps it was time to quit while they're ahead.

"Maybe you should stop going to see her so frequently, Yasha. She obviously doesn't know anything, so why bother anymore?" Kagome said diplomatically. Honestly she feared that one day Kikyo would tire of attempting to get Inuyasha to kill her, and would harm her best friend in some way. 'Like heck I'd let that happen, though. She'll have to go through my dead body,' she thought angrily.

Inuyasha sighed in defeat, knowing that the wise human was right, as usual. "You're right, I'll just tell her that we're busy hunting shards, she'll get the hint," he said, telling that more to himself than Kagome.

She laughed at the expression on the silver-haired males face. Keeping her giggles to a minimum so as not to wake their friends, she reached over and tweaked one of Inuyasha's puppy ears affectionately, her smile never faltering even as he halfheartedly smacked her hand away. Tucking a stray raven black lock of hair behind her ear, she leaned back onto Inuyasha's side, letting out a sigh of contentment. Shippo and Kirara still lay sleeping in her lap, and Miroku and Sango looked snug and happy sleeping against one another. For the moment, the half demon and the miko could enjoy a moment of peace.

The calming moment was shattered by something zipping across Kagome's senses; a jewel shard, moving at incredible speeds. At first she assumed it was Koga, but there was only one, and it was moving much to fast to be the stubborn wolf demon. Reaching out her sense further, Kagome tried her best to pinpoint it, but it was already gone. Her sapphire eyes narrowed in frustration, and she huffed in disappointment at the situation.

Inuyasha felt her tense beside him, and leveled his honey golden ices to the crown of her head.

"Kagome?" he said softly with a small hint of concern, "are you okay? Do you sense anything?"

She shook her head, a curtain of blue-black silk falling off of her shoulders with the motion. She didn't want to worry her friends over something that she couldn't do anything about.

"No, no. It's nothing."

**Here you go guys, new chapter. Enjoy.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Himino fiddled with the jewel shards in her hand, juggling them between her fingers nonchalantly as she strolled through the forest.

A week had passed since her supposed landing on Earth, and she was still no where near understanding what or who she was. But rather than let the emptiness of her mind taint her natural joy, she decided to create new memories, one day at a time. Besides, her memories couldn't have been too important if she had forgotten them.

Right?

Moonlight-white hair streaming behind her, she turned on her heel to face the sunrise. The warm colors melted into dark hues that painted the sky into a masterpiece of nature. Wispy clouds faded out of existence just as the sun shined it's last rays on the horizon.

A smile broke quickly through Himino's facade.

"It's times like these that I really wish I had a companion to share these moments with..." she whispered to herself.

Sighing in defeat, she continued walking north; the direction of the nearest shard of power. She had realized something of importance, though; she had the ability to purify the jewel shards with her power, completely purify them. By forcing her aura and power into one, she could destroy any and all energy trapped within it, leaving it no more than a pure white shard with no presence whatsoever.

'_Pretty nifty, if I do say so myself!' _she thought happily.

One of her elven ears twitched in agitation. Turning to the left, she saw a wisp of white through the treeline. Being naturally curious, she took off after it without a moments hesitation. _'Finally, something to do!'_

The foliage blurred by her in a green smudge of movement, and her eyes strained to keep up with the pale figure. Legs pumping with barely contained strength and speed, Himino sped up, finally skidding to a somewhat sloppy stop in a small clearing with a weeping willow tree in the center. Within the branches there was a woman, her limbs gracefully arranged in a seemingly comfortable position on the trees boughs. She wore the red and white outfit of a miko, with straight black hair and evenly cut bangs. What perplexed the white haired demoness was the ghostly thin demons drifting in the air. Insect-like appendages gripped what she guessed could only be souls; the demons circled the woman a few times before dropping the souls into her body and flying off to retrieve more.

It was a depressing sight.

"Hey, you in the tree! Why are you absorbing all these souls?" Confusion laced her voice as she spoke, breaking the spell of silence that was in the air.

The woman opened her eyes to reveal chocolate orbs that held much wisdom, but lacked warmth or any other necessary emotion. Himino flinched at the frigid glare that was directed towards her, wondering what she'd done to provoke the mysterious woman.

The woman's voice turned out to be just as frosty and dead as her eyes.

"As a demon, surely you can smell me with your superior senses and answer that for yourself. Or are you simply a fool?" she answered haughtily.

The sarcasm wasn't lost on Himino, nor was it appreciated. Ignoring the barb, she took a quick whiff of the woman, realizing she smelled of ashes, soil, and death. _'She must be already dead and someone brought her back...' _the emerald eyed girl thought sadly.

"If you're dead, why are you here?" she asked bluntly.

The woman seemed to consider her for a long moment. With the expression on her face, she seemed truly startled by such a question, one which she obviously did not have an answer for. This managed to confuse Himino even further. Why was she here?

Cold chocolate eyes shocked her with the killing intent that positively leaked from her posture. Sliding from the tree and gently floating to the ground, the corpse gracefully threw a pouch of arrows over her slender shoulder. Bending from the knees, she picked up a wood red bow from the ground and gripped it tightly in her right hand.

"I have no need to explain the circumstances of my existence to a lowly demon such as yourself. Now begone, or I won't hesitate to slay you," she said coolly.

The white haired beauty stepped back a few steps, not in fear, but in bewilderment at how harsh and unreasonable this person she had just met was being. She had never been one to take unjust treatment, and she wasn't about to let some pompous lump of clay that she had just met treat her as such.

"Now see here, woman. I was only asking why you're here because you're DEAD. Dead people are usually in the ground. But here you are, a walking corpse, and you have the nerve to treat me like dirt, when it's YOU who are dirt. And I meant that quite literally," Himino spat angrily, her bottom lip sticking out slightly in a petulant pout.

The dead priestess narrowed her eyes even further. Raising a sickeningly pale hand, she gripped an arrow between her fingers and notched it into her bow. Aiming for Himino's heart, she spoke venomously, "I don't need a demon to tell me what I am. This is your last chance to leave me be." she hissed.

Himino's sleeves snapped at her elbows as she turned around swiftly, an affronted look flashing across her face, only to be quickly hidden by her moonlight bangs. Her hands clenched tightly, though she was careful not to draw blood with her razor fine white claws.

"Do what you want dead woman, but those souls won't sustain you forever. Not every soul you absorb is completely pure, and eventually, the taint will ruin you," she said solemnly, "in fact, it might already have started. You don't act anything like a priestess; at least, not one of the light."

With those final words, Himino walked away surely and swiftly, blatantly ignoring the threat of the arrow pointed at her back. She smirked and tried not to let a laugh pass through her perfect facade.

_'That was so awesome, I completely confused that chick, and I looked so bad-ass while I did it!'_

Little did the young demoness know, her words rang more true than she could ever know.

Kikyo lowered her bow long after the mysterious female walked away so suddenly. Her arms remained frozen for many long moments as her parting words swirled in her head.

_'...dead, why are you here...it's YOU who are dirt...literally...souls won't sustain you forever...not every soul...completely pure...the taint will ruin you...'_

Make it stop.

_'...already started...don't act anything like a priestess...'_

No, its not true...she's wrong.

_'...not one of the light.'_

Tears rolled down her cold cheeks in silent streams. She didn't bother trying to hold them back, but some part of her knew tears shouldn't be possible for someone such as her. Ignoring the pang in her heart, the lonely priestess let her trusted soul collectors twine around her in a deathly freezing embrace. She flinched slightly as they carried her off; the pain in her clay chest only intensified as they touched her.

For the first time, she could feel the biting cold from their pale flesh.

**I will not make excuses on the late chapter, only promise that I will try not to be late again.**


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